Reviews of The United States and
Biological Warfare: secrets of the
Early Cold War and Korea

1. Peter Pringle, in The Nation, 3 May 1999

"...Stephen Endicott and Edward Hagerman have produced the most impressive, expertly
researched and, as far as the official files allow, the best-documented case for the prosecution yet
made....unique access to top-secret Chinese archives...lends the book credibility from an entirely
new angle....Indeed, their book shows in alarming detail how the United States was doggedly
developing an array of biological weapons for offensive purposes at a time when the public was
being told the arsenal was purely defensive."

1. KIRKUS Review, December 1, 1998:

"An expose of a little-known and shameful episode in American military history.
Much has been made of the fact that the Japanese military during WWII resorted to the use of
biological and chemical weapons, in violation of international law. Asian history specialist
Endicott and military historian Hagerman, both professors at York University (Canada), together
reveal that immediately after WWII, the US army picked up where the Japanese military left off,
using testing facilities in Yokohama and Kyoto to find ways of turning plague, cholera, anthrax,
undulant fever, encephalitis, salmonella, meningitis, typus, and tularemia against the newfound
Communist enemy. Lt. General Yujiro Wakamatsu, commander of the notorious Unit 100, which
tested biological weapons on Chinese prisoners during WWII, found work as a research scientist
in the principal American laboratory; so did many other Japanese scientists granted immunity for
their wartime crimes. In 1952, the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai accused the US of conducting
biological warfare in Korea--of dropping bombs, for instance, "containing live insects of various
descriptions and rotten fish, decaying pork, frogs, and rodents." Drawing on recently declassified
documents, the authors lend credence to Zhou's charge, which the US denied at the time. (Among
other things cited here is an approving letter of 1953 from President Harry S. Truman suggesting
"that had the war in the Pacific not ended by mid-August 1945, [Truman] would have used
biological as well as chemical weapons.") A number of villains turn up in Endicott and
Hagerman's fast-paced narrative, among them key figures in American defense, pharmaceutical,
medical, and intelligence circles; sadly, there are no heroes to match them.
A convincing and shockingly relevant case study of official and technological immorality."

2. Publisher's Weekly, November 30, 1998:

"If nothing else, Canadian historian Endicott and American historian Hagerman will make
thoughtful readers see the irony in the U.S. government's ongoing showdown with Iraq over
biological weapons. This history of the U.S. biological weapons program alleges that the U.S.
actually deployed biological weapons during the Korean War. The authors marshal an impressive
array of evidence that the military and executive branch lied to Congress and the public about the
development of biological weapons. At the end of WWII, the American military enlisted the aid
of top Japanese biological warfare officers; when the Korean War broke out, the U.S. embarked
on an ambitious program to produce offensive biological weapons, despite Pentagon
protestations that the research was geared toward defensive weaponry. During the war, Chinese
officials learned of mysterious outbreaks of disease after some U.S. raids and began to suspect
that biological weapons were being used. The authors were the first foreigners allowed to inspect
Chinese archival documents dealing with the possible American use of biological weapons. They
rely heavily on these sources, as well as on Canadian, British and American documents. The
research is bolstered by endnotes and an array of photographs (not seen by PW)."

4. Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Citizen Soldiers,on the dust jacket:

"This book is disturbing to an extreme degree. As prosecutors, Hagerman and Endicott present a
strong case. They cannot be said to be dispassionate, but they are careful, even judicious. At a
minimum their research and revelations raise questions about the possible use of biological
warfare by the United States in the Korean War that must be answered before we indulge in
further moral condemnatiion of Iraq's research and development of a germ warfare capability."

"This is a prime example of bad history....some of their claims verge on the ludicrous...Don't
believe the comments on the book jacket, readers would be much better off reading something
more balanced on this subject."

"Canadian historians Endicott and Hagerman present a disturbing political and moral
exploration of the U. S. biological warfare program during the Cold War, claiming that the
United States actually used biological weapons during the Korean War.... the authors' antiwar
argument condemns the United States for its development and alleged use of biological weapons
and its denial and cover-up when challenged."

7. Robert A. Lynn, editor, Military and Bravo/Veterans Outlook Magazines, March
1999

"...must reading for anyone interested not only in national security issues but also in the overall
moral issues as well. The need to break down the barriers of both secrecy and double-talk are
clearly made in this excellent book. Both authors have done a tremendous service to future
generations with the publication of this detailed and well-researched account."

"The authors use extensive American and Chinese sources to make a persuasive case that the US
experimented with and deployed biological weapons during the Korean War. This is an
important book for anyone interested in the history of the Korean War, American policy and the
general question of the morality of modern warfare."

9. David Wilson, associate editor of the United Church of Canada's, The Observer, April
1999:

"Supported by exhaustive archival research and interviews...the authors argue convincingly that
the United States did indeed use germ warfare against China and North Korea in the early
'50s....declassified documents place the U. S. germ warfare program firmly in the context of the
doctrine of total war....Aside from its political, ideological and military dimensions, the story of
germ warfare in Korea is ultimately an ethical one. It's about how political and military leaders,
convinced of the divinity of their cause, encouraged "ethical blindness" and went to great lengths
to keep activities "that violated the moral consensus" shrouded in secrecy."

"...a very learned book by two professors at York University....The conclusion seems to be that
there is circumstantial evidence in abundance which 'strongly supports the allegations of use (of
such weapons)...and implies a continuing high-level cover-up about the true relationship of the
United States government to biological weaponry in general.'"

11. John Kim, in Korean Quarterly,Spring 1999:

"A fascinating work of serious scholarship, the book brings together an array of evidence
amassed from governmental archives and interviews, presenting a compelling argument that the
Uniterd States did, in fact, secretly experiment with biological weapons during the Korean War."

12. Ed Regis, in The New York Times,27 June 1999:

"The evidence Endicott and Hagerman present for their extraordinarily dubious claim is notable
only for its weakness."

13. John Ellis van Courtland Moon, in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
May/Jun 1999:

"If the United States had used bio-weapons in the Korean War, it would have constituted an
international crime of the first magnitude....Although the book fails to make its case, it does
highlight the need to release records of the U. S. program during the early 1950's. Until this is
done, the questions and accusations will not go away."

14. Frank Costigliola, University of Connecticut, commentary at the Society for
Historians of American Foreign Relations,26th Annual Conference, June 2000, at Ryerson
University in Toronto:

"The authors have assembled massive documentation from a multinational archival search, and
they have pieced together a highly plausible, tightly reasoned analysis to sustain their
arguments....Despite some doubts about the `proof` of these secrets, I believe that Endicott and
Hagerman have written a model book and paper that other historians of foreign relations might
emulate. They have tackled an important subject and have pieced together fragments of evidence
in a meaningful pattern."

15. Brian L. Evans, University of Alberta, in Canadian Journal of History, April 2000:

"Stephen Endicott and Edward Hagerman have done a masterful job in marshalling the evidence
and providing the arguments to make the case for the charge that the United States indulged in
biological (bacteriological, germ) warfare under the umbrella of the Korean War. Their book is
one that deserves wide discussion, not only for what it tells us about how governments
deliberately misinform and mislead their citizens, while sacrificing the rights of individuals, but
for what it means in the history of Western (American) relations with Eastern Asia."

"Ever since the end of the Korean War there have been persistent rumors that the United States
applied its captured Japanese biological warfare information in that conflict. Those rumors have
proven resistant to evidence and have been heatedly denied by U.S. authorities. Recently,
however, two Canadian investigators have built a compelling, if not conclusive, case that
America's secret deal with Ishii and his colleagues had concrete consequences only a few years
later....newly released documents from the United States, Canada, and China...undermine
long-standing denials that the Japanese lessons were applied during the Korean War."

17. Daniel Paskowitz, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, on
website of The Journal of the American Medical Association, MSJAMA, "White Coats and War
Crimes,"March 1, 2000:

"Endicott and Hagerman cannot absolutely prove that the United States deployed biological
weapons in the Korean War, because no US declassified documents yet exist that explicitly
admits these claims. However, through exhaustive research and careful documentation, Endicott
and Hagerman build an effective case that a biological attack could have happened and probably
did. They show that the US government built biological weapons and prepared to use them in
war, whether or not an enemy government had used biological weapons first. Testimony from US
military personnel, Chinese health officials, and international observers who were asked to
investigate Chinese allegations of biological warfare all weigh heavily toward the probability that
it happened. The book is meticulously researched, carefully documented, and well
written....Medical students and others preparing to enter the health professions will be especially
interested in the roles played by physicians and medical researches in the biological warfare
program."

"The most in-depth investigation into the US biological warfare....To reveal the shrouded truth,
Endicott and Hagerman conducted extensive research in the United States, Japan, Canada and
Europe. They were the first foreigners to be given access to classified documents in the Chinese
Central Archives."

19. G. Cameron Hurst III, Director of the Centre for East Asian Studies,
University of Pennsylvania, commenting on The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets
of the Early Cold War and Korea, in William Lafleur et al. eds., Dark Medicine: rationalizing
unethical medical research, (Indiana University Press, 2007, pg 119):

“...Endicott and Hagerman is far and away the most authoritative work on the subject.”